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If you want to create and run a WordPress website, you’ll need web hosting.
As soon as you start looking into the options, you’ll quickly realise that there are various types of hosting solutions available, each with different prices, performance levels, features and technical specifications.
If you want to make the right decision for your website, it is important to understand the different types of hosting available, as well as their respective advantages and disadvantages.
That’s what this post is for. We’ll start by explaining, in general terms, what web hosting is. We’ll then break down the most popular types of hosting and help you understand which one is right for your website.
What is web hosting?
Web hosting is a service that encompasses both the hardware and software required to run your website and make it accessible to visitors from all over the world.
In other words, this is where your website’s files and content are stored, and it is what serves these files to visitors when they access your website (by typing in the website’s domain name).
Behind every single website there is a web server, whether it’s a large website such as Index or just a simple blog.
When you buy web hosting, you are essentially renting space on a computer. This could be a portion of a computer that you share with others, an entire computer, or even space on a network of computers (also known as the ‘cloud’).
Once you’ve got your website hosting, you can start using it.
Just as you can install software (e.g. applications) on your own computer, you can also install software on your web hosting account.
If, for example, you want to create a WordPress website, you’ll first need web hosting (the hardware). You can then install WordPress (the software) on your web hosting. And voilà – you now have the foundations of a website that people can access from anywhere in the world.
Different websites have different hosting requirements when it comes to the resources needed to run them.
A high-traffic, resource-intensive website will need high-performance hosting to handle the workload, whilst a low-traffic website will require less performance.
Generally speaking, higher-performance hosting costs more. You wouldn’t expect a cheap, €300 laptop to perform just as well as a top-of-the-range computer costing €10,000, and the same applies to web hosting.
The 5 main types of web hosting
Now that you know what web hosting is, let’s take a look at the five main types of web hosting.
All of these hosting types are fully suitable for running WordPress websites. However, some may be better suited to the specific needs of your WordPress website than others.
Shared hosting
Shared hosting is where many people begin their journey with hosting services, as it is one of the cheapest ways to host a website.
With this type of hosting, your website or account shares resources with other accounts and websites on the web server – hence the name.
By sharing resources in this way, web hosting providers are able to keep their costs down and offer low prices.
This is the only advantage of shared hosting – it’s cheap. Shared hosting providers typically advertise generous resource limits, such as ‘unlimited websites’, ‘unlimited hosting’ and/or ‘unlimited bandwidth’.
Unfortunately, there is no such thing as truly ‘unlimited’ hosting, and all shared hosting providers continue to apply a ‘fair use’ policy. Regardless of this, shared hosting can still be a very cost-effective way of running multiple websites.
Although the low prices of shared hosting are attractive, there can be very real drawbacks in terms of performance, reliability and security. For example, if the other accounts with which you share resources are consuming a lot of resources, this can have a negative impact on your website’s performance, as there may not be sufficient resources available.
For this reason, many people move beyond shared hosting as soon as their website starts to grow, as other types of hosting offer significant improvements in key areas such as performance and reliability.
Cloud hosting
With cloud-based hosting, your website is allocated its own dedicated resources on a vast network of computers, known as the ‘cloud’.
This is one of the key differences between cloud-based hosting and shared hosting – rather than sharing resources, you get resources that are 100 per cent dedicated to your website. This generally results in better performance, as you don’t have to worry about other websites affecting yours.
Cloud-based hosting also offers excellent reliability, as everything is handled by a network of computers rather than a single point of failure.
It is also easy to upgrade or downgrade hosting resources, as the hosting provider simply needs to allocate more (or fewer) resources to your account on the network.
For this reason, cloud-based hosting is one of the fastest-growing types of hosting. You may have heard of names such as Google Cloud Platform, AWS (Amazon Web Services), Microsoft Azure, DigitalOcean, etc. These are all examples of cloud-based hosting providers.
Within cloud-based hosting (and many other types of hosting), hosting can be further divided into two categories:
- Managed – the hosting provider configures and maintains the server for you, e.g. by updating the system components.
- Unmanaged – you are responsible for configuring and maintaining the server.
All things considered, unmanaged hosting costs less than managed hosting, as the hosting provider offers additional services with the managed option (and these additional services cost more).
Generally speaking, users without a technical background almost always opt for a managed solution. Developers, however, may prefer unmanaged hosting due to the greater flexibility and/or cost savings it offers.
VPS hosting
VPS hosting is very similar to cloud hosting. The main difference is that your website receives dedicated resources from a single physical server, rather than from the ‘cloud’. Although you do not have the entire server to yourself with VPS, the resources allocated to your website are 100 per cent yours (unlike with shared hosting).
Whilst traditional VPS hosting used to be very popular, with the rise of cloud-based hosting, this solution has now taken a back seat.
Most people are better off with a cloud-based hosting approach, as it offers more flexible scalability. In other words, it is easier to add more resources to the server if necessary (or to reduce them).
Despite this, you’ll still come across quite a few hosting providers advertising VPS hosting, so it’s worth finding out more about this type of hosting.
Managed WordPress hosting
Managed WordPress hosting is a specialised type of hosting.
WordPress websites can also be hosted using all other hosting methods, so this is certainly not the only way to host a WordPress website. However, unlike other types of hosting, managed WordPress hosting can only host WordPress sites, which can be limiting in certain situations. For example, you cannot install your own analytics tool (e.g. Matomo) alongside your WordPress site.
You can use various types of hosting environments, such as shared hosting, cloud-based hosting, etc. In this way, managed WordPress hosting is not entirely distinct from other types of hosting.
The most important thing that sets it apart from ‘standard’ hosting is the package of services specifically designed for WordPress sites.
This typically includes the following types of services:
- Automatic daily backups; you can also back up your website manually if necessary
- Automatic creation of staging sites (for development)
- Automatic WordPress updates
- WordPress-specific performance optimisation, such as caching and, where appropriate, a content delivery network (CDN)
- WordPress-specific security guidelines
- Expert WordPress support
The main advantage of managed WordPress hosting is convenience. You get more than just web hosting, and these additional services can save you time when it comes to maintaining your website.
The main drawback, however, is the price. Assuming we’re talking about hosting plans with the same resources, managed WordPress hosting will always be more expensive, because you have to pay for these extra services somehow.
This means that managed WordPress hosting could be a good choice for those who are willing to pay a small premium for convenience and extra features.
Dedicated server
Dedicated server hosting is an advanced type of hosting that is really only used by high-traffic websites or large companies.
In the case of a dedicated server, the hosting hardware is either physically owned by you or can be leased. In the latter case, the lease usually covers the costs of server hosting and physical maintenance, whilst if you own the equipment yourself, you will need to take care of this yourself.
The average WordPress user will never need this, but it is a type of hosting you may come across, so it’s useful to be familiar with the term.
Conclusion
If you want to create a website, you’ll need web hosting. However, there are various types of hosting to choose from, so it’s important to be aware of your options, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each type of hosting.
Some types of hosting, for example, focus on keeping costs low at the expense of performance, whilst others prioritise maximum performance and flexibility (but often at the expense of higher costs or added complexity).
You can compare aWh’s different hosting types (web hosting, cPanel, WordPress, static and email hosting) side by side on the hosting solutions page; if you’re interested in the factors to consider when choosing a plan, read our guide to choosing web hosting.